People's Report: Clamp down on MoBay traffic chaos

The city of Montego Bay continues to have in place an inherently ramshackle, chaotic and ineffective transportation system, which requires the meticulous attention of the Montego Bay traffic department, the Transport Authority and the St James Parish Council.

A significant number of motor vehicles, including public passenger vehicles, continue to flout the law by travelling at high speeds on Howard Cooke Boulevard through to Lucea highway, as well as along the Montego Bay to Falmouth highway. It is shocking, disgraceful and reprehensible that road users, some carrying passengers in their taxis and buses, can be recklessly speeding on those thoroughfares, putting life and limb at risk.

The authorities must expeditiously begin to monitor these western Jamaica highways and prosecute all careless drivers who are breaching the speed limit. Constant police presence is really required on those roads in and around Montego Bay to bring some well-needed discipline. Things have really gotten out of control.

Another gargantuan Montego Bay transportation problem has to do with the fact that some taxi and bus drivers are still vehemently refusing to use the Montego Bay Municipal Transportation Centre, which is centrally located along Barnett Street in the city and a smaller satellite one that is based on St Claver's Avenue. The public passenger operators are instead daily using the streets of the city to wait on, pick up and discharge their passengers, all in contravention of the Road Traffic Act and Transport Authority Act.

Those taxi operators who currently park their taxis along the city streets must be prosecuted and sternly instructed to always use designated parking centres. Consistent failure to abide by the law in this respect must result in their route taxi licences suspended in the first instance and cancelled in the second. A zero tolerance approach must be enforced.